Although some members of society suffer from having too much space, the more usual and less rectifiable complaint is that one must cope with not enough space. Both at work and at home, we often desire increased functionality from our available space. Efficient utilization of the available space in any living or working area has been a prime furniture design consideration for centuries. With the increase in the number of people who work from their homes, there is an even greater demand for efficient space utilization.
Generally, people perform different functions at different times in the day. For example, during the day a room may be needed for an office or living room. During the evening, a party room may be needed to entertain guests. At night, a bedroom is preferred., With a limited number of rooms having limited space, it would be advantageous to have a single room performs more than one of these functions. However, traditional, non-configurable furniture may not adequately fulfill all these functions.
One way to more efficiently use the available space in a room is to provide furnishing elements which are configurable into more than one type of furniture, depending on the function required by the user. One device which has been in use for decades is the so-called Murphy Bed. Basically, this device consists of a mattress and platform structure which is pivotally mounted within a recess of a wall. In the folded down, extended position, the mattress and platform form a bed. In the folded up, contracted position, the mattress is hidden with the recess, while the undersurface of the platform forms a portion of the wall.
Prior art devices, such as the Murphy Bed and other systems for assembling temporary or semi-permanent living space furniture suffer from a lack of versatility in that they allow the construction of too few basic configurations. Any deviation from those basic configurations require use of additional hardware which increases assembly time detracts from the styling unity of the original design and greatly increases the tooling and installation costs. Many of the prior art systems resort to a large number of components which increase the complexity of the assembly. Most significantly, many prior art systems lack in dimensional consistency between different arrangements of standard elements. The present invention results from a comprehensive attempt to resolve those problems.